Crystal River current., 1887-08-27

pick moods" when every opposite
force in his nature seemed to be at
work at one and the same time.
HIS friendship had always been q
perplexity to her.
Sometimes he would be genial, mer-
ry, Il most charming good comrade,"
and then again cold, sad, and more or
less strange.
, A struggling young physician, proud
and poor, fighting down for honor's
sake passionate, hopeless love.
Small wonder that he sometimes
moved as if IN dream, for these con-
iicts OF the heart-all the sharper for
being noiseless-are bound to leave
their scars upon the brain.
But Lucia did not guess any OF this
as a more widely-eXperienced woman
might have done, and only wondered
that her friend-for he did seem that
to her should be at times SO unfriend.
like.
Among men he passed for light OF
heart, careless kind OF fellow, gener-
GUS, is little cold, but always ready
to lift burden for another, though
never letting any one come too near
lis own. They sat without talking
for u while feeling silence was the best
in that lovely spot where one was SO
close to nature he could almost feel
her warm, odorous breath on his
cheek.
DR.. Holt was first to speak:
"Miss Lucia, I wonder what you are
thinking about? DO you know, your
thoughts seem to float in your eyes
like fish in q stream, always there
just below the surface, but not al
ways easy to seize.
st is very tantalizing in you. You
look as il you had something to i'm
part, and u body gets to wondering
and Wondering what it is, until he
finds himself doing nothing else"
81 really think you ought to stop it,
or else crafty very blameless curios-
ity."
She opened her purple eyes wide,
and giving him one OF her long, inclus-
I'VE looks, which seemed to adopt one
into her thoughts along with the
beautiful things already there, answer
ed slowly:
"Would you really like to know?
Why, | was just thinking ii l were rich,
what great things | would do for this
river. 1t is terrible to be poor, isn't
il? There are so few things you can
do"
He leaned forward, picked up a
stone, and threw it into the water.
"Ycs, it is terrible to be poor. !
sometimes wonder what good excuse
Il poor man can offer for living"
His tone was so bitter that the girl
made haste to say:
"You should not talk that way; it
is wicked"
shouldn't II Well. perhaps not.
Somebody does say that poverty
comes by Divine gift as well as riches,
and | suppose it is intended as q sort
OF grist-mill for ones superfiuous
PRIDE but when everything in q mans
nature seems to run into that there is
not much OF hepoor fellow left by the
time the grinding is over. There is
one thing, however," Strengthening
himself up and looking across the riv-
or, THAT is objectionable, and that
is for II man without money or pros
poets OF money to indulge himself III
that madness of the heart called love.
lie must keep that organ empty I'M
il his pockets are filled, for . full
heart and slim purse are an ILL
mated pair. Any other course is
sheer lunacy, and should be plea suf-
iicient Tor Imprisonment in the asylum
tor idiots"
He paused moment for Lucia to
answer, but us she did not speak he
continued in the same strain with
whimsical persistence, ieering at love
and lovers, and especially at those
silly folk who "marred for q senti-
nent, with nothing substantial to
feed it Oh, or themselves either, for
that matter"
Still Lucia did not interrupt him.
He kept his eyes fixed on the fields
to the south, and seemed unconscious
OF the yehenence of his ords.
ga nan commits wrong when he
asks girl to marry him and has moth
ing to give her but his love. 1t is des-
picab,e in HIM, and sinfully weak in
her to permit it. 1t is her simple
duty to refuse him, as she would a
confirmed drunkard or any other in
durable.
This bread and cheese and kisses
sentiment will do very well for a
novelist to use as a peg on which to
hang lot OF sentimental twaddle,
but it will not do for practical life.
And in this world we have to be
practical.
"a girl ought to marry q man who
can provide for her, and if she has
choice between rich sutton and r.
poor one, she will be very silly indeed
TO let a foolish fancy that anybody
can out live stand in the way of her
fure-well, comfort, or whatever the
modern name for happiness is"
There was curious strain in his
j i I. A-.,.r Il L.
loosen it by a forced laugh, adding,
as ii to himself: God must have
been intended exclusively for the poor,
Tor they can love him, at any rate,
without committing SIM"
Lucie rose. There was q faint flush
on her dark cheeks now.
If you have quite finished we will
60 home. You recited your lesson
well, and hope, feel the pleasure that
arises from consciousness OF
having done ones duty. 1t was Just